


It's All Liam's Fault, Really

by iheartallthefandoms



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Feelings, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Harry is very calm, Kissing, Louis panics a lot, M/M, No Smut, Practice Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 16:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7446382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iheartallthefandoms/pseuds/iheartallthefandoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Louis are teachers who've been best friends for six years. Louis' grandma is celebrating her birthday this weekend and Louis accidentally forgot to tell his mum that he'd broken up with his boyfriend, who had been invited. Desperately, he turns to Harry to help him fake a relationship so his mum won't be mad. Feelings ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's All Liam's Fault, Really

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pink_rose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pink_rose/gifts).



> Based off the prompt: Louis and Harry have been best friends for a long time--even though they're almost complete opposites. There's a chance one of them fell in love with the other one a long time ago but they don't really like to talk about that.
> 
> This is technically set in London, but I don't know anything about the UK school system, so it's like they teach American Middle School in London. And are British. So, umm, yeah. Just suspend reality a bit.
> 
> Thanks, as always, to my beta S! You are the bestest and my favorite! THANKS! Any mistakes left are mine!

“Haz!” Louis pounded on the door. “We are going to be late! I’m sure your hair looks fine. Let’s go, slowpoke!” He dug his keys out of his pocket, and twirled the ring until he reached Harry’s bright purple key.

Just as he’s about to unlock the door, it swung open.

“Late, Lou, really?” Harry smirked. “We can’t be late, we’re always an hour early to school.”

“Yes, well, I treasure that hour. And I’ve copies to be made this morning, so let’s go!” Louis shook his keys in Harry’s face indignantly.

“Fine, fine! I’m coming, drama queen. Let me just grab my bag.” Harry threw his overly stuffed teacher’s bag over his shoulder and locked the door behind him.

"It's about time, Harold, it's like I've been waiting here for ages. My tea's nearly gone cold."

Harry swiped the thermos of tea from Louis' hand, taking a sip. He barely held himself back from spitting it out.

"Cold?!" he sputtered. "This is scorching hot still, love!"

Louis smiled. "But it could’ve gone cold, you know. You were taking hours in there, trying to make your curls sit just so, I know how you operate." Although, Louis begrudged himself, Harry's hair did look amazing. But when didn't it?

“I was not taking hours, you were probably only here for about five seconds before you starting banging on my door." The duo walked to Louis' car, which he'd left running at the curb of Harry's apartment building. Harry continued, "You know, one of these days, you're going to come back out here and your car will've been stolen. You can't just leave it running out here on the street."

"But the heater's on, I just wanted it to be toasty for when we got in," Louis fake whined.

"Toasty? Louis, it's the beginning of October. In the Midwest. It's not even cold yet. What are you? A scrawny puppy who will freeze in the slightest temperature below 80F?"

"So I get cold easily, sue me." Louis stuck his tongue out, both boys inside the car now. Harry safely stowed his bag in the back seat next to Louis' teacher bag. Without much more discussion, they drove to school. When they arrived, Louis was surprised to see two cars in the parking lot before them.

"The boys got here before us? See, I told you we'd be late!"

"Oh hush, we still have 57 minutes before first bell! We'll be fine, you big baby!"

"Fine, Harold, but if I find out that Liam has used all the paper in the copier in our hall, I'm coming to steal your 'secret' stash!"

"Whatever, Lou," Harry said, grinning. Louis was always threatening to steal his paper. He had yet to actually follow through on his threats.

Louis sauntered into the teachers' lounge, grabbed his mail and threw his lunch in the fridge on his way to the eighth grade hallway. Harry had already taken off for the sixth grade hallway, and they'd planned meeting to leave an hour after school let out, as per usual.

He went about his daily routine, and made sure his lessons were printed and his copies were done. Luckily, the copier had not run out of paper and he even got to make a few extra copies, a priceless commodity in a middle school classroom.

After a busy morning of working through fractions and trying seventy different ways to show his students how the problems worked, Louis was exhausted and ready for a break. Luckily, his plan time was right after lunch, so he had a bit of a break before seeing his last class of the day. And it was Monday, so he didn’t have any meetings to attend. Of course, he had tons of grading to do, so it wasn't really a break. Although, he usually worked alongside Liam, so at least they could talk and laugh through their grading, which made it much more bearable.

Louis' phone buzzed four times in quick succession. Usually he didn’t get texts during the school day, most of his friends and family knowing not to contact him except in emergency. He waved the last students out the door with a weary smile and pulled his phone from his pocket.

His mum had sent four messages and Louis felt a pang of fear flood through him.

     From Mummy <3: Lou, love, sorry to bother you at school…

     From Mummy <3: But I think you’re almost at lunch, yeah?

     From Mummy <3: Anyway, just wanted to remind you about Grams’ birthday party this weekend! We’re expecting you Friday evening, party is on Saturday at 6!

     From Mummy <3: Looking forward to seeing you and your boyfriend!

Louis panicked. He had, of course, completely forgotten about his Grams’ party. His mum had mentioned it months ago, but since he was immediate family, she hadn’t sent him an invite. Something about how she knew it would end up buried on his desk anyway, which was probably true.

“Oh fuck me!” he groaned, just as his classroom door swung open to Liam’s smiling face.

“Don’t think Zayn’d agree to that, but I can ask him, if you want,” Liam teased, his eyes sparkling.

“Oi, fuck off, I wasn’t asking,” Louis groaned again. “Damn you English teachers, always taking things literally!”

"Oh come on, Lou, I was just teasing. You know Zee and I don't like to share!" He winked, and Louis knew his best friend was teasing, but he was completely panicking about the damn birthday party.  He threw his hands over his face.

"Fuck it all!"

“What's wrong, Lou? I was seriously just teasing," Liam said, sounding worried.

"No, it's not that," Louis said. "It’s just, my mum texted, and-"

Liam cut him off. "Are she and the girls ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, they're fine," Louis smiled in spite of his panic. He and Liam had discussed many times the feeling that came along with random texts during the school day. It was one of the most terrifying feelings, really, and they'd both received texts that were unavoidably stupid in the middle of a class, panicked, and realized it was nothing. Louis' mum was almost famous for them.

"So?" Liam asked.

"I just completely fucking forgot about Grams' birthday party this weekend. And my mum wants me to -get this- show up on Friday night with my fucking boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?! Are you dating someone and didn’t tell me?" Liam asked, his hand flew to cover his mouth as if in horror.

“Fuck, no, Liam, you know I’d tell you about that.” Louis rolled his eyes at his friend’s antics.

“So why does she think you’re bringing a boyfriend?”

“I think maybe when we originally made plans for Grams’ party I was still dating Kevin.”

“Ugh, Kevin!” Liam rolled his eyes. Kevin, well, Kevin was Louis' ex. And they hadn't dated for long, like three months or so, ending because there just wasn’t any spark. Which was sad, really, because he was very pretty. But, it wasn't that long of a relationship, in the grand scheme of things, and they had stopped dating two months ago. Louis had been almost certain he'd told his mum. Apparently not.

"I guess I forgot to tell her we broke up- or I did tell her and she forgot. I can't even remember at this point, honestly. It's not like it was that big of a deal."

"I'm honestly more shocked that you told her about him in the first place. Don’t you usually try and hide your boyfriends from your mum unless they're really in it for the long haul?”

"Well, yeah. I mean, after Nick, can you blame me?" Louis asked, shaking his head.

"No, not really. So why can't you just tell her you and Kevin broke up?"

"She’s going to be so disappointed," Louis said, pulling out his phone. His mum was always bugging him about settling down and starting a family, and while those were Louis’ plans for his life, he didn’t like being nagged about it. “But, yeah, I’ll just tell her.”

"Well I'm gonna start marking, if you don't mind. The kids turned in essays this morning and oh my god there are so many of them." Louis chuckled absentmindedly, trying to figure out what to say to his mum.

     From Louis: I'll be there on Friday, mum, can't wait.

     From Mummy <3: It'll be so good to see you, Lou Bear! It's been ages! Can't wait to meet your boyfriend!

     From Mummy <3: I’m so excited! You haven’t introduced us to anyone in such a long time!

Louis shook his head. He absolutely hated disappointing his mum.

     From Louis: Right, about that…

     From Mummy <3: He is coming, isn’t he? You know, we booked reservations at Sapphire and I prepaid per person.

     From Louis: We’ll be there, mum, don’t worry.

“Oh fuck me!" Louis groaned for the umpteenth time that hour.

"What?" Liam asked.

"My mum prepaid for food at the restaurant and now she's going to be super upset if I don't bring anyone. What am I going to do?"

"You could tell her the truth, you know," Liam advised.

"And feel guilty all weekend for not telling my mum that Kevin and I broke up? No thanks."

"Or you could just bring a friend."

"She thinks I'm bringing a boyfriend, Liam, not just some friend."

"So fake it," Liam said.

"Fake a relationship for an entire weekend?"

"Why not? It couldn't hurt. Just fake it for a few days and then in a week or so, just tell her you guys broke it off. What harm could that be?"

Louis pondered this. It actually didn't sound like that bad of an idea. It would get his mum off his back and make her happy all at the same time, so it was kind of win-win.

"Only one problem." Louis said to Liam who was looking pretty smug across the room, surrounded by stacks of essays. "I need someone to pretend with me."

"Oh. Right." Liam responded. They both thought for a minute or two.

"You could ask Niall," Liam giggled.

"I don't think I’d be able to sell that as a real relationship for five minutes." Louis laughed. "I love Niall, I do, but I could never date him."

"Ok, ok, so that wouldn't work."

"Any other brilliant ideas, Leeyum?"

"Actually, yes," Liam grinned.

"Well, let's hear it." Louis was suddenly worried. Liam had a bit of an evil look on his face and that never led to good things.

"You should take Harry."

"That actually might work." Louis thought about it. He and Harry had been best friends for years, almost as long as he'd known Liam and Zayn. He, Liam, and Zayn had starting teaching together the same year, and Harry and Niall had joined them the next year. Now the fivesome were inseparable and more often than not were seen hanging out together and really were all the best of friends.

"You guys could totally pull it off," Liam said. “It would be perfect."

"Guess I should respond to my mum then,” Louis said. “She’s texted again. Probably something about worrying her for no reason.” Louis flicked his phone unlocked again and read his texts. Liam returned to his grading.

     From Mummy <3: Oh good! I was about to have a heart attack Lou Bear!

     From Mummy <3: You still there, Lou?

     From Louis: Sorry, mum really. Was talking to Liam and got distracted.

     From Mummy <3: Oh it's fine, honey. I know you guys are busy at school.

     From Mummy <3: I’ll see you and your boy on Friday, alright?

     From Louis: Alright, mum, love you.

     From Mummy <3: Love you too, Lou Bear!

“Well that’s done.” Louis sighed in relief. “Just have to convince Harry to play along with this crazy scheme of yours, Liam.”

"Like Harry wouldn't do this for you? That boy would do anything for you if you just asked, you know that, Louis."

"Right, right," Louis reassured himself. “I’ll talk to him after school.” The two fell into grading after that, only really looking up when Louis’ phone alarm went off, signaling time for lunch.

***

"Hey, Haz, ready to go?"

"Let me just grab the kids' projects from the homework trays, Louis, and then I'm good."

"Did you have a good day?" Louis asked. Even though he was pretty much following their regular routine, Louis was nervous. The texts with his mum and the conversation with Liam from earlier had weighed on the back of his mind the rest of the day. Louis was lucky his last class was so enthusiastic. They definitely kept him on his toes for the last 65 minutes of the day.

"Yeah, it was alright. Had a bit of a laugh fourth period. Jimmy Mathers, you know, his older sister is Sarah?" When Louis nodded, Harry continued. "Anyway his group was presenting their PowerPoint today and he gets up and does this elaborate interpretative dance to every step of the presentation. It was adorable!"

Louis laughed. He knew the older sister, and she was a handful. He imagined Jimmy was much of the same. "What did the other kids do?"

"Shockingly, gave him a standing ovation when he was done. You could tell that at first, some of them wanted to laugh when he was dancing, but no one did and it was just so cute. It was obvious he'd practiced and was so proud of his presentation." Harry was beaming.

"Sounds like it was a lot of fun."

"It was, it was. How was your day?"

"Good," Louis said. "Taught more about fractions today, so you know, that was interesting. Always takes a few lessons before the concepts just click. Went alright though, we'll see tomorrow how much they really learned."

"Pop quiz?" Harry grinned.

"Of course! What kind of teacher would I be if I didn't surprise my students with a little quiz every now and then?" Louis returned Harry's grin. He did like to keep his students on their toes. Had to get them ready for high school, after all.

The two climbed into Louis' car, tossing their bags in the back. Louis' bag was not nearly as full as Harry’s. Louis drove them to Harry's apartment building.

When he parked, Louis stopped Harry from getting out right away.

"Hey, do you want to join me for dinner tonight?" Louis asked. "Got something I want to ask you about."

"Sure," Harry smiled. "Want me to bring anything?"

"No, just yourself. Pasta ok?"

"Sounds great. I'll come around 7?"

"Ok, cool. See you then." Louis waved as Harry entered his building. Now he had to go buy more ingredients for dinner. He hadn't really been planning on pasta, more like a frozen pizza, but he felt like cooking. It was the least he could do since he would be asking Harry to become his boyfriend for the weekend.

At 7:00 on the dot, there was a knock at Louis' door.

"It's open," Louis called, stirring the pasta sauce again. It was nearly done, and it smelled delicious.

"You know you really shouldn't do that," Harry said. "I could've been a serial killer for all you know."

"Good thing you aren't!" Louis laughed.

"Are you sure about that, Lou?" Harry smirked as he closed the door and came up behind Louis, attempting a hug.

"Well now you have me worried," Louis laughed. “And sorry, love, I've pasta sauce all over my apron." He gestured to his Kiss the Cook apron, which was indeed splattered with pasta sauce.

"I can deal without a hug, I suppose," Harry sighed dramatically.

"Oh thank goodness for your sacrifice." Louis grinned. Harry was just as good at bringing out the dramatics in any situation, much like he was. That's really why he thought this plan was going to work.

"Lou?" Harry questioned, a grin on his face.

"Hmm?" Louis was almost done with the sauce, just needing to pour it over the noodles still.

"Is there a reason why you have so much sauce on your apron? Did you get in a fight with the cooktop?"

"No, you fucker. I just dropped the spoon when Liam called earlier and it definitely splattered more than I was expecting."

"You didn't burn yourself, though, did you?" Harry was looking at him intently, clearing checking each of Louis' arms for splatters of sauce or even burns.

"No, it wasn’t that hot yet, thankfully. That would've been awful!" Louis grimaced.

"Oh, good." Harry smiled. "So what did you want to ask me?"

"I'll ask over dinner, ok?" Louis returned the smile. He wasn’t quite ready to share his plan and wanted a bit of the wine Harry had brought before begging his best friend to be his fake boyfriend for a weekend.

"Ok, whatever. What can I do to help?"

"Just take the plates to the table and open the wine, yeah?"

"Alright, love, will do." Louis' heart warmed at the endearment. He and Harry always called each other love, along with any other number of cutesy little names, but suddenly it took another meaning. Maybe it was the nerves he felt flitting around, thinking about the dilemma he was in.

The pasta turned out to be delicious, just as Louis knew it would be. He wouldn't be winning any gourmet chef competitions any time soon, but he was quite confident in his abilities to cook.

"So, Harry," he started, glad for the extra confidence provided to him by the nice red wine Harry had brought.

"Damn, Louis, what is it? You're not, like, dying or summat, right?" Harry looked worried, maybe Louis wasn't displaying as much confidence as he had thought.

"No, no, love, of course not." He quickly reassured his best friend.

"Then what is it? You look so serious all of a sudden."

"It's just..." he started, not sure suddenly of how to do this. He took a deep breath. "You know how it's Grams’ birthday this weekend, yeah?"

"Yeah, I remember you saying something about that a while ago. So?" Harry trailed off.

"Well, um," Louis couldn’t look at Harry anymore. "So, Mum thinks I am bringing home a boyfriend this weekend and I need it to be you." He said all of this rather fast, still not willing to look Harry in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, what?" There was an incredulous tone to Harry's voice.

"You see, it's just that when we originally talked about Grams’ party, I was still dating Kevin, and I guess I forgot to tell mum that we broke up, and now she thinks I'm bringing a boyfriend home with me this weekend and-"

Harry cut him off. "You didn't tell your mum you broke things off with Kevin?"

“Honestly, I forgot that I even told her about him in the first place.”

“So tell her now, Lou!”

“I can’t! She’d be so disappointed!”

“Why?”

“Because apparently I never tell her about my love life and she prepaid for the dinner and will be pissed if I don’t have a boyfriend there to eat with us.”

“That sounds crazy, Louis. How do I fit into all of this? Doesn’t she know your ‘boyfriend’ is named Kevin?”

“Don’t think I ever told her that,” Louis threw up his hands. “I don’t even know, I just know she’s excited to meet my boyfriend. See, look.” He handed his phone over to Harry, displaying the earlier conversation from his mum.

“Hmm.” Harry read quickly, sitting back in his seat.

“I was talking to Liam about it, you know, and he suggested I just have someone pretend with me all weekend and-“

Harry cut him off for the second time that evening. It was apparently becoming a habit, just like his rambling. “Fine.”

Louis sputtered. “What?”

“I said, fine. I’ll do it.”

“Really?” Louis hadn’t really thought Harry would agree to the crazy plan, as much as he had wished otherwise.

“Of course, Lou. I love your mum, and you’d do the same for me, right?” Louis nodded feverishly. If they hadn’t been sitting at the dining room table, he probably would’ve launched himself at Harry for a hug.

“I can’t even,” Louis started. “Just, thanks, Haz, really. It means a lot to me.”

“There’s no one else I’d rather pretend to be boyfriends with than you, Lou,” Harry said cheekily.

“Ok, you fucker.” Clearly they’d moved on to the teasing portion of the evening.

“So what’s our plan?” Harry looked suspiciously eager.

“We go hang out with my family Friday and Saturday, eat dinner and celebrate Grams’ birthday Saturday night, and come back home on Sunday. Not much, really.”

“But what is our _boyfriend_ plan, Lou?”

"I don't know, like, pretend we're dating?" Louis questioned. "And then we can 'break up' and I'll be all sad about it."

"You really haven't thought this through, have you?"

"I guess not?" Louis said.

"We have to come up with some kind of story. I mean, your mum has met me before. She thinks we're friends though."

"I don't know, shit, Harry. I hadn't thought that far ahead. I'd really only thought about how I would beg and convince you to do this with me."

"Well it's a good thing you picked me then, huh?" Harry smirked. "We can't just show up and be like, 'hey, we're dating!' without anyone asking questions!"

"Fine then, Mr. Fancypants, let's come up with a backstory then."

Harry smiled widely. "This is going to be so much fun!"

They spent the next two house hashing out all the aspects of their story. They'd been friends for 6 years, and as far as Louis' mom knew, they'd been dating for 5 months. They decided to just go with the time frame Louis had previously given his mum when he'd first (stupidly, he thought) told her about the unnamed Kevin. They were definitely going with the whole best friends to lovers thing. They were going to say that they'd been out one night with the boys and one thing had led to the other, and they decided to give dating a try. It actually wasn't a bad plan. They had been friends for long enough that it was believable, and Louis could definitely see himself dating Harry. It didn't sound that bad, actually.

Harry was in the midst of explaining (or fabricating) one of their so-called dates, and Louis just watched him. He was captivating and Louis was almost convinced for a minute that they really had fun mini-golfing in the pouring rain, 'because they wanted the extra challenge.' It sounded like fun.

A bit later, they parted for the evening. It was still a school night, and Louis did have a pop quiz to prepare for tomorrow's classes. They'd see each other in the morning, anyway, on the drive to school.

***

Finally, it was plan time on Friday. Harry had been texting Louis random facts about their ‘dating life’ all week and it was understandable that Louis was a bundle of nerves because of it.

In fact, Louis had been bouncing with a weird combination of nerves and excitement all day. Luckily, it was Friday, so he had his students in stations. They were playing different math games and completing activities to practice their fraction skills. It was definitely a day for bouncing around the room and helping each group. It was actually a blast, much more fun than other Fridays when he'd tried similar arrangements. Maybe the kids had caught on to his excitement.

"Lou, my man," Liam called, entering the room. They usually didn't grade on Fridays, just sat around and talked and took advantage of the one day they didn't have meetings or papers to grade.

"Hey, Li, how's it going?" Louis returned cheerfully.

"Good, good. How're you?"

"Fabulous, really. The kids are loving the stations today, for some reason, which is awesome."

"Probably all this crazy energy you have," Liam gestured to Louis. His knee had not stopped bouncing since Liam had come in, and he was also busy twirling a pencil.

"Oh yeah, guess I'm just nervous or summat."

“Right, you and lover boy are leaving right after school, I’d nearly forgotten.” Liam smirked, clearly teasing Louis.

"Oi, you dick," Louis laughed, chucking a paper ball at Liam's head and successfully hitting him. "This whole thing with 'lover boy' aka Harry was your idea. Like you would've forgotten."

"Just messing with you, Lou, you're so wound up, it's easy!" Liam just shook his head. "Well, good luck with it all, anyway. Z and I want text updates all weekend."

"You told Zayn about this charade?" Louis groaned.

"Of course I did, he's my husband. It's not like I really hide anything from him. Oh, and he says thanks but no thanks to your offer from the other day." Liam was smirking even worse now.

"Offer? What the fuck are you talk-" then he remembered. "That wasn't an offer you dick, get out!" he laughed. He picked up a few more paper balls, threatening to throw them at Liam.

"Like I said, Lou, too easy. Too easy!"

"Whatever Leeyum!" Louis smiled. "I've got stuff to get ready for Monday and I've got to take a bathroom run before lunch. So piss off!"

"Love you too, Lewis." Liam waved and assumedly, headed back to his classroom.

***

Harry arrived at his classroom door mere minutes after the bell that afternoon. They were lucky neither of them had after-school duty, and that they'd put their luggage in the car that morning. Louis really wanted to get a head start on traffic. It would be long enough driving up north, he had no mind to make it longer.

"Hey Lou," Harry greeted, leaning in for a hug. Louis could feel some of the anxiety and tension leak out of him in Harry’s arms. It always seemed to be like that. He just felt safe and comfortable there. Weird.

"Hey, ready to get going?"

"Sure thing! Let's hit the road, Jack, and don't cha come back!" Harry crooned.

"Ok, you dork, let's go."

They were about an hour into their drive, having discussed their days, as was their usual after school practice. Harry had taken over Louis' stereo and was currently singing along to ‘I Wanna’ by All-American Rejects.

Harry had a good voice, Louis thought. In another world, he would’ve made a great pop star. Louis didn’t join in with him, like he usually did on their drives home. He was too caught up by the lyrics.

                _I never thought that I was so blind,_

                _I could finally see the truth,_

                _It’s me for you._

Louis could admit to himself that he did have somewhat of a crush on Harry, always had, really. But he never did anything about it since he didn’t want to mess up their friendship. There was no way Harry returned his feelings anyway.

And then Harry was running his hands up and down his chest, winking at Louis and still singing.

                _I wanna I wanna I wanna touch you_

                _You wanna touch me too_

                _Every way and when they set me free_

                _Just put your hands on me_

Louis immediately panicked.

“Fuck, Harry, I didn’t even think about,” he trailed off. His mind was going a million miles a second and it had suddenly hit him. He was glad the road was relatively clear, but he was still starting to really panic.

“What? Louis, seriously, what’s wrong?”

“I just. I didn’t.” Louis kept trying to explain.

“Ok, ok, calm down. Just pull over, ok, love? Please?” Harry sounded worried but Louis was afraid to risk a look at him for fear of really losing control. He nodded and signaled to get over.

Putting the car in park, he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself and his swirling thoughts.

“Lou,” Harry began talking gently, as if not to frighten him even further. “What’s wrong, love?”

“We’re supposed to be boyfriends!” Louis tried to keep his voice under control, but it went high at the end with panic.

Harry laughed. “I know, love, that’s kind of the point of me being here and all of our plans.”

“Yes, but, like, we’re supposed to act like boyfriends.” Louis wasn’t really sure how to explain the panic in his brain right now.

“Still not seeing the problem, love.”

“We’re gonna, you know, have to, umm,” Louis paused, taking another deep breath. “Like touch and kiss and shit.” He gripped the wheel tighter and refused to look at Harry, terrified of what he’d see on Harry’s face.

“And?” There was a curious tint to Harry’s voice. Louis whipped his head around.

“What do you mean ‘and’?”

“I mean, I kind of figured, Louis, we are pretending we’ve been dating for five months already. And that this whole thing started after ‘one thing led to another,’ like we decided the other day. It’s not that shocking that we’d have to let them see us kiss this weekend.”

“How are you not freaking out about this? Why didn’t I think about this?” Louis was incredulous at Harry’s level of calm. He really didn’t think of the physical aspects at all, he was more worried about getting all the details laid out and planned.

“It’s just kissing, Louis, it’s not like they’re going to expect more than that. And besides, it’s not like it’ll be hard to kiss you.” Louis’ stomach swirled at those words, more than he’d ever admit. “I mean, you are fit, Lou, it’s not like I hadn’t noticed.”

Louis blushed and looked away. “You too, Haz, obviously.”

“So, let’s practice then. It’ll calm your nerves a bit.” Harry said, still calm.

“Umm, I, what?” Before Louis could say anything else, Harry’s hand was on his chin, gently turning his head until their eyes locked. Louis’ heart was racing, but all he could do was gaze into Harry’s eyes. They were startlingly green, a fact he’d noticed many times before, but never really paid much attention to. Maybe this wasn’t the worst idea in the world, he thought as Harry leaned closer.

Harry’s gaze flickered down to his lips and back up to his eyes, almost asking if it was ok to move on.

It was so ok.

He took the last step and leaned forward, pressing their lips together. It was as if he’d been electrocuted. Why hadn’t they ever done this before? Harry’s lips were so soft, and yet firm at the same time. He tasted faintly of the chocolate they’d shared earlier, but something else as well. Something uniquely Harry, he supposed.

And then he stopped thinking and reached up to tangle his fingers in Harry’s hair. They broke apart for a second, both panting a bit and just stared at each other. Louis could hear the faint sounds of traffic outside the car, but he wasn’t really concerned with it. He was more concerned with the fact that he did not want to be done tasting Harry, so he leaned back in.

It was just as good the second time. Somehow, his lips parted and the kiss got deeper. His brain was a little fuzzy about the details, too busy paying attention to the feel of Harry’s lips against his and his tongue in Louis’ mouth. Harry’s curls were twirled around his fingers and he gave them a little tug. Harry let out a low moan against his lips and Louis’ heart soared. He’d imagined them kissing many times in his past, as he usually did with whatever boy he was crushing on, but this somehow exceeded all of his daydreams. Harry was a fucking amazing kisser.

“Damn,” Louis breathed as they parted again.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. They were still inches apart, and Louis really wanted to get back to kissing Harry, but he knew they had to talk about this. This was not just ‘practice’ kissing anymore.

“Haz, if I would’ve known you kissed like that,” Louis joked, bringing a blushing smile to Harry’s cheeks.

“Agreed,” Harry leaned forward and pecked his lips again, but it was over before Louis could deepen it.

“Fuck, Harry, I don’t know,” Louis said. “I don’t know if I can just pretend with you this weekend.” Harry’s eyes widened at his words. Louis was surprised himself. That was not what he had planned on saying. Damn Harry and his addicting kisses and distracting swollen lips inches from his face.

“What?”

“I have to tell you something, love,” Louis started. He could tell Harry was a bit worried by now, but he hadn’t made a move to separate himself from Louis’ embrace. They were still pretty closely entwined.

“Anything, Lou, just stop freaking me out.”

Louis looked down. It’s not every day that he admitted to his best friend of six years that he had fancied him for that long, obviously. “I fancy you.”

“You what?” Harry’s mouth was open in shock, Louis assumed.

“I’ve fancied you for ages,” Louis admitted. “And this whole pretend thing we were gonna do just made me realize how much fun it would be to date you, and that kiss, I mean, fuck Harry. That kiss just sealed it all for me. I don’t want to pretend to date you, I want to really date you.”

“Lou,” Harry breathed.

“Please, just, if that’s not how you feel, then,” Louis was cut off as Harry’s lips were back on his. They kissed again for what seemed like ages, but was probably only seconds. Before it could get too deep (and then they both couldn’t breathe), Harry pulled back.

“Yes, Lou, if you’re asking me to date you, then my answer will always be yes. I can’t believe we’ve both been this blind.”

“Really?” Louis asked, smiling so wide his cheeks would be feeling it the rest of the night.

“Of course, Lou, I’ve fancied you for ages too. Just didn’t think you wanted to be anything more than friends.”

“Fuck, we’re such idiots!” Louis laughed. He leaned in and kissed Harry again. “We could’ve been doing this for years.”

“At least we realized it now,” Harry said. They smiled stupidly at each other for a bit, Louis tucking Harry’s curls behind his ear.

“I’m so glad we did.”

“Me too.”

Many kisses later, they got back on the road. The music forgotten, they spent the entire time talking, Harry’s fingers entwined with Louis’ over the gear shift.

Louis couldn’t wait to get to his mum’s and text Liam. Poor bastard was never going to believe the result of his crazy plan. Louis could barely believe it himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come find me on tumblr when authors have been revealed!


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